BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Local Woman Proves American Dream Still Alive and Well in Brockton
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BROCKTON – The grand opening of LA Cleaning Services in Brockton on Monday will mark the culmination of a lifelong journey for 26-year-old Lindsey Anthony.

When she was just 8 years old, Anthony began drawing up plans for launching her dream business: she was going to be the first in her family to go to college, the first to own her own business, the first to be an independent success story.

But then life got in the way.

Taken away from her mother and separated from her siblings after a violent domestic incident, Anthony spent her school years in and out of 17 foster homes and group placements. At age 16, she dropped out of high school to work, in an effort to supplement her single-mother’s income. Anthony desperately wanted to keep her three younger siblings -- two brothers and a sister -- from following the same path of temporary homes and constant uncertainty.

But even with Anthony’s income and her mother working three jobs, they could not afford their apartment. So, just two years ago, the family began living in a van and eating discarded bread from the dumpsters of Dunkin Donuts’ around the city.

“My mom and I would take turns staying awake at night while the younger ones slept,” said Anthony. “We didn’t want to get in trouble, but we didn’t know where to go for help.”

It was at this moment that Anthony’s dream of starting a business re-emerged from the back of her mind.

And this time it refused to be ignored.

Anthony took a job at CVS and picked up every shift she possibly could. She worked and saved until she had enough money to move her family into a small apartment in Brockton. She still could not afford furniture, so she bought an air mattress for her siblings to sleep on and she slept on the floor.

“The first night in the apartment I couldn’t sleep,” Anthony recalled. “I knew I didn’t want to live paycheck to paycheck.

“In the Haitian culture you’re a wife, you support your husband, you’re behind a man…You stand in the shadows. But I didn’t want to wait for a man. And I didn’t want to stand in the shadows.”

So she made a checklist of every expense necessary to start her own business and began putting $50 aside from every paycheck to go towards buying the next item on her list.

“This week I was saving for the business license. Then this week for office supplies and this week for utilities,” said Anthony, who also earned her GED along the way. “I invested everything I have.”

On Monday, Anthony’s dream will finally become reality.

After two years of build up, Anthony will officially open her business’s doors as Owner of LA Cleaning Services. She has three experienced employees in this full-service residential and commercial cleaning service -- using exclusively hypoallergenic cleaning supplies -- and already has contracts lined up to start on day one.

In her Main St. office, where she encourages clients to stop in and meet her in person, Anthony has surrounded herself with Haitian artwork depicting “strong women” as a constant motivator and a reminder that she is setting an example for her siblings and other young people around the community.

“I truly love Brockton,” said Anthony with a smile. “Brockton made me who I am. I just want to really change what’s coming up -- the next generation. I just want to help them to see you don’t have to be an underdog all the time. And I especially want my siblings to know you don’t have to be quiet. You don’t have to accept your current situation.